It Takes a Community
ONE PERSON ALONE CANNOT KEEP A FOOD PANTRY GOING. I’m always reminded of this in the winters when:
it’s cold in the pantry,
snowy outside,
life is tough for the homeless.
This time of year, there are always wonderful surprises which keep my heart going. Last week, I got a call:
“Is this the Reservoir Food Pantry?”
“Yes it is. How can we help?”
“Well, can you send somebody over here to pick up a few things? Our store employees had a food drive over here and I don’t think anyone told you about it.”
Wow! I thought. “Sure, I’ll be down in an hour. Where do I come?”
“HOME DEPOT IN KINGSTON.”
“Thanks!”
So, I got in the car and drove over to pick up a few things the employees had collected. They underestimated their collection a little. It filled up the car. Food, cleaning supplies, items of dignity, clothes. One of the employees had knitted 2 gorgeous afghans! Another employee gave us a box of clean, very gently used baby clothing.
EVERY ITEM…FOOD, CLEANING SUPPLIES, APPEARED TO BE NEW. When all the things were stuffed in the car, it seemed every employee in the store had given something.
I DROVE THEM OVER TO THE PANTRY. EVERYTHING, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING, WAS DISTRIBUTED AT THE NEXT PANTRY DAY.
WE REALLY APPRECIATE THESE DONATIONS OF FOOD AND CLOTHING KS . We have many shoppers and there are few stores in Boiceville. Most of the people shopping at our pantry have both money and transportation issues which make trips to Kingston difficult. Some shoppers have very limited finances so $$$ for a winter coat is a real challenge.
EVERYTHING COMING IN IS CLEAN, PRACTICAL, AND VERY MUCH NEEDED.
Lisa Libraries donates new books for anyone who wants to read or who needs to give a gift. These donated books are free and available to anyone wanting a book.
If you want to donate food, clothing, cleaning items, items of dignity, household items, please drop these items off at 12 noon on Mondays. CHANCES ARE GOOD THAT WHAT YOU DROP OFF AT NOON WILL BE IN ITS NEW HOME BY 4:00.
We thank you in advance for your generosity.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
I’m not Focused on Poverty
Poverty.
The subject is
huge.
intimidating.
scary.
To tackle poverty in this country is almost an impossible task.
Ronald Reagan said “We fought a war against poverty and poverty won.”
How a country as rich as ours can have so many hungry people is an embarrassment, a scandal. How can we let this happen?
How can we go about our lives every day just ignoring the millions of poor and destitute people?
How can we simply watch a new class, the struggling class, spring up and pretend it isn’t happening?
I’ve explored these questions for some time now and have finally come to the conclusion that I don’t have the answers.
This is the same question I ask when I explore the question of how the Nazis were allowed to slaughter so many Jews in the 30’s. I don’t know how this happened either.
However, there is one thing that I do know. I know that it is within my power to feed people and I can write about it.
I can’t find nonexistent jobs for them. I can’t get $$$ for their healthcare. I can’t get $$$ for the exorbitant rental prices they endure.
What I can do is offer soups, fresh veggies and fruits every Monday afternoon at 2:00 and I can tell the world on my blog.
For now, because that’s all I can do, I have to be satisfied with this.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
At the Intersection of Hunger and Health
I write 2 blogs. One is about hunger and food pantries. The other is about hea
lth through the lens of reflexology. They are two very different subjects, However, they definitely have an intersection point: disease.
People suffering with food insecurity, resource poverty, or who are the struggling poor experience a whole set of diseases based on what is or is not available for them to eat.
Diabetes
Hypertension
Heart disease.
Actually, these diseases can all be condensed into one: diabetes. Because, when a person has diabetes, the disease isn’t just diabetes. Diabetes brings several other diseases right along with it:
heart disease
blindness
kidney disease
Hunger, food insecurity, overweight/obesity, and supermarket abandonment all go hand in hand with diabetes.
I’ve gotten to the point where I can “see” a struggling poor person walking down the street.
And, of course, the situation with the hungry/poor is not a problem with a person individually. The entire issue is wrapped up in the community as well. People with jobs paying enough to buy healthy and affordable food have better health.
People with no jobs or minimum wage jobs often live in food deserts with no access to food. Without a working automobile, they are forced to live off food sold in gas station food marts, pharmacy food aisles.
Fortunate indeed is the struggling class person with access to a pantry offering nutritious foods. Fortunate indeed is the struggling class person who has SNAP and can get to a good grocery store.
Kingston, NY has several really good food pantries and is also the winter home of the Farm Stand located in Kingston Community Action at 70 Lindsley Ave. Every Tuesday morning at 10:00, a truck load of fresh vegetables arrives from the Food Bank of the Hudson Vallley. Last week they had potatoes, onions, squash, apples, parsnips, cabbages, cauliflower, and beets (among other delicious veggies).
Anyone can shop at the Farm Stand. All they ask is how many people are in your household. The Farm Stand opens every Tuesday morning and is open every morning until the fresh produce is gone.
Please visit the Farm Stand.
Please tell your friends, neighbors, relatives about this wonderful example of our tax dollars at work.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
“What’re You Doing?”
“What’re you doing?” she asked. For a minute, I didn’t understand what was happening. We were all crowded into the pantry. I was trying to make sure the shoppers got through the tiny shed with all the groceries they needed (and qualified for) without anybody getting squashed.
“What’re you doing?” she asked again. Then, I realized she was trying to talk with me about something in the midst of this chaos. Sometimes people do that. They decide to have a conversation…to get to know the people in the room better possibly. Often, they want to know more about a product or maybe get a recipe.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, I’m thinking about 2015. This place has changed so much over this past year. When I first started coming here, there were only a few of us. Now look around. There’re people everywhere. You open the pantry now every week about 2 hours early. The boxes are piling up outside. We’re all so happy you’re here and we’re all so grateful for the food. I know you can use some more help.
“Can you give anything away? What do you have to do to get a little freedom? How can you get a lighter spirit?”
WOW! Talk about God in the pantry! I thought a minute as the people moved through the tiny shed choosing a can of soup, a gallon of vinegar, a small bottle of water, a box of crackers.
But, I only needed a minute. What do I have to do to get a lighter spirit? Well, in order to lighten the load, I need to give something away…
Cardboard!
Every week our pantry is totally overrun with empty boxes at the end of the pantry day. By 4:00, everyone is tired, grumpy, winded, bushed, fatigued…you name it. And, what do we look at?
We look at a mountain…an actual mountain of cardboard.
When I thought about giving away those empty boxes, my heart began to sing. I felt as if I was as light as a feather.
What a wonderful opportunity this shopper had given to me…to everyone at the pantry, actually. She gave us the gift of vision. Once a vision exists, reality can follow. So, I began to visualize a pantry with 0 discarded boxes at the close of the pantry day.
I was energized by this vision. I realized what needed to happen was the reality of the vision. The energy needs to follow the intent to create the reality.
So, 2 thoughts came to me.
The first thought was to give away the boxes…1 by 1. That’s how they do it at the Food Coop in Great Barrington. When a shopper goes to the Food Coop there, s/he chooses the cardboard boxes needed to carry the groceries out of the building.
So,that’s what we’re doing now. Beginning just a few minutes after the shopper started talking to me, I asked everyone to take home a box. That, of course, didn’t get rid of all the boxes.
But, it did make a huge dent in the pile.
I’m also asking everyone I meet at the pantry “Who can haul off the boxes at the end of the pantry?” I’m sure as sight that someone will surface to take the empty boxes to a dump somewhere.
There is someone out there who wants to volunteer at the pantry, who has a pickup or SUV, and who knows where a convenient transfer station is.
Maybe you know someone. Maybe you can do this. If your answer is “yes” please drop by the pantry on Monday afternoon about 4:00 or call 845-399-3967.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Resolutions for 2015
The ad in the New York Times read:
Lighten up.
Get to know your neighbors.
Pick your battles.
Although that ad was actually written for the Museum of Modern Art, it could have been written just for us.
Resolutions at the Reservoir Food Pantry scream at us as our shoppers clearly point the way ahead in 2015. We’ve narrowed the choice down to just a few so we can successfully carry them out.
Resolution No. 1 – Lighten up.
And, lighten up we will. We’ve actually begun to do just that. At the end of every pantry day, we have only a few fresh food items left. Last Monday’s pantry ended with 6 squashes and a small bag of spinach. We can’t get much lighter than that.
In 2015, we’ll continue going to Latham weekly and returning with food to distribute on that day to the many who come and those we deliver food to. No longer will we be bringing 5 or 6 of something to the pantry. We’re going to be looking for items that have 80+ available. If we can’t find 80+ of something, it won’t come in the van.
Reservoir Food Pantry food is both a supplement to what people can find in other places and a necessity for those whose income doesn’t last the entire month. We’re not a pantry anymore. We’re a food distribution center.
Resolution No. 2 – Get to know our neighbors.
Although we’ve only been open since 2013 and we’ve had very little “press”, word is spreading rapidly. A pantry is a community within a community. It’s important now for Reservoir Food Pantry to open its doors so everyone in the area knows about us, understands us, knows our mission.
Resolution No. 3 – Pick your battles.
Fighting hunger is not for sissies. The effort required to take on this fight is larger than life almost. The rewards are also larger than life. We need volunteers to help distribute food. Not only do we have more people shopping at our pantry, we also have more home bound people requesting services.
We need people to:
help deliver food to the homebound.
work in the pantry itself on Monday afternoons.
dispose of the mountains of cardboard we generate every Monday afternoon.
bring the monthly shipment over from Kingston.
If you’re interested in working in the pantry, please join us on Mondays at noon at the pantry. Or, call me at 845-399-3967. Those who help in the pantry understand the importance of the work and get much pleasure from it. They realize what they are doing is necessary and they get very attached to the job.
The economy has changed dramatically since 2005. Both Irene and Sandy contributed much to local changes. Food stamp cuts have all but removed any safety net a person may have had.
Reservoir Food Pantry offers a client food distribution system where the hungry shop weekly with dignity for fresh produce, baked breads, and canned and packaged goods. People come to the pantry for healthy foods to sustain themselves and their households. We deliver food to those who cannot come to the pantry.
When we feed people, we strengthen the entire community as we assist those who are most vulnerable.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Thurman Greco
Stewart’s Shops and the Milk Coupons
“Hi Bob. How’s it going today?”
“It’s going good here. There’s a long line outside here at the pantry. This place is really growing.”
“Bob, do you ever make it over to Stewart’s on 28?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, I’ve got something nice for you today if you can get there. I’ve got a milk coupon for you if you can use it.”
“Sure.”
This conversation was repeated many times in the pantry this week. Sometimes the shopper had transportation to get to Stewart’s. Sometimes the conversation didn’t go quite so well. In that case s/he didn’t get a coupon. The nearest Stewart’s Shop is on 28 near the Woodstock turnoff so those whose transportation is limited to bicycles and walking can’t make it that far down the road.
Solid gold, these coupons. For one thing, we distribute cereal and it’s really nice if we can offer milk to put on the cereal. This week we offered coupons to 100 families who visited our pantry!
Stewart’s Shops are located within a 150 mile radius of their headquarters in Saratoga Springs, NY which means that food pantries in Upstate New York are blessed with being near a company with a serious commitment to community support. A family and employee owned business, Stewart’s donates 5% of its profits to charity.
This year, 2014, Stewart’s is giving away over $2.5 million in monetary and product donations to non profit organizations in the 30 counties where they have stores.
Even though millionaires are fast becoming billionaires and the stock market is soaring, we really are living in difficult economic times…so much so that charitable donor organizations are as stressed as the non profits who solicit to them daily.
Stewart’s is well aware of the long term problems we face as we serve the hungry. Stewart’s also knows about the stresses non profits experience as we work to alleviate hunger in our area. That makes Stewart’s a real angel to food pantries and soup kitchens.
Apart from offering a sincere “Thank You” from all of us in the industry, there are several things we can do to show our appreciation to a company which is committed to feeding the hungry.
We can shop at Stewart’s when we purchase gas, milk, and bread.
We can support Stewart’s on Social Media.
So, I ask you to: Like Stewart’s on Facebook. Follow Stewart’s on Twitter.
The next time you shop for food or gas at a Stewart’s shop, can you take a moment to thank the employees of the store where you shop? A simple sentence recognizing the company and employees for their generosity is extremely important to all of us.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Dear Neighbor
THIS WEEK WAS GLORIOUS IN THE RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY. Although the pantry was so cold that the pens froze at the sign-in book, we didn’t even mind. After all, I’m experienced with working in a cold space. The Woodstock Reformed Church was never heated either. So what. It’s better for the produce, don’t you agree?
But, back to the glorious part…our first ever mailer went out this week. Or, rather, the whole project was completed on Tuesday when I took the last load of letters to the Kingston Post Office to the Bulk Mail room.
What a wonderful feeling that was! We’ve been working for months on this mailer. Robyn Daugherty addressed envelopes on many pantry afternoons beginning about last March.
Bonnie Lykes and Felice Castellano took up pen and envelope throughout the summer months. Then, other people joined in at the table and we finally finished the job this week.
Finalists included Louise Cacchio, Garrett O’Dell, Susanne Traub, and Barbara Freisner.
Prasida and I signed the letters.
The entire project was a huge leap of faith. After all, the Reservoir Food Pantry only opened in September, 2013, on Route 28 in Boiceville, when volunteers delivered food to 21 homebound households.. With little to no fanfare, we’ve been growing steadily. The need for a food pantry in our area was great when we opened, and it’s even greater today.
WE SERVE OVER 900 PEOPLE MONTHLY. 40% of those served are homebound residents in the area unable to come to the pantry. Families and individuals visiting the Reservoir Food Pantry weekly come from many different circumstances. Some are single parent families. Some work more than one job and are still unable to buy food after they pay the rent and get the gas to go to work. Some have lost their jobs, their homes. Still others are struggling with life-altering circumstances, be it a health issue, an accident, the loss of a family member, or other personal disaster.
The Reservoir Food Pantry was founded by local residents, Sean Bigler and Bonnie Lykes. We’re fortunate to have the support pf volunteers from the community. There are no salaried employees. We nourish the hungry, both in our pantry and by delivering food to those unable to visit the pantry. We offer canned, packaged food, bread and fresh produce regularly. We also offer a limited amount of items of dignity.
THE PANTRY NEEDS YOUR HELP. Your generosity is appreciated and your gift will be used to directly help neighbors. Please make your check payable to the Reservoir Food Pantry, and mail it to P. O. Box 245, Boiceville, NY 12412.
If you prefer to donate by credit card, please visit our website at www.reservoirfoodpantry.org/donate.
Reservoir Food Pantry, Inc., is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit charity and your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Troy Martin, Markertek, and the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley
“You write a book and it’s like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it in the ocean. You don’t know if it will ever reach any shore. And there, you see, sometimes it falls in the hands of the right person.” – Isabel Allende
And, so says the universe.
So, anyway, Troy Martin put out a plea in the first days of December for groups and individuals to volunteer at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley to help get thousands of pounds of much needed food organized for distributed to those in need.
“We have day, evening and weekend shifts. If you can help, please contact Troy Martin at 845-534-5344 or email tmartin@foodbankofhudsonvalley.org.” His message was pretty compelling. I put it out on the blog. I sent emails out. I made announcements at meetings. And, finally, I bit.
-Last Thursday, Garrett, Barbara, and I took off for Cornwall-on-Hudson. I drove while Barbara and Garrett navigated. We got to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley in just over an hour. The building is a large cavern right in town with much parking.
We were greeted by all the staff and shown to our work space…How can I describe it? A huge cave of a space was totally packed with wonderful, glorious, beautiful, gorgeous, much needed food. As pantry workers, we got all excited. I mean…all this food was just sitting there waiting for some kindhearted souls to show up and sort it so it can go out in shipments!
In the beginning, we were a little disorganized. There were about 6 long tables set out lengthwise for the food products. About 6 feet away was another group of tables covered with empty banana boxes ready to receive the cans, jars, and boxes we were going to organize by category:
pantry
baked goods
fruits and vegetables
soups
condiments
pet food
cat litter
#10 cans
A few volunteers were already on the job: Carol, a nice middle-aged woman putting in her 1st day on the job as a volunteer at FBHV, 2 older retired men who appeared to have been around the warehouse for a long time…years maybe. Soon after we arrived, at 10:00, a group of Bruderhofer students arrived complete with teachers and chaperones.
After a few minutes, group task, group think, and group goal took over the space. I don’t know how this happened and I’ll never be able to explain it, I guess. But, whatever it was, I’m suspecting that the right brains in all of us assumed control. Maybe it was just a miracle. Who knows. What happened is not important.
What is important is that Troy mentored us along with encouraging words, a never ending supply of pallets of food needing to be sorted, and empty banana boxes on demand.
We, on some level, began to understand that the items we were handling wanted to occupy their proper place in the correct banana box. Canned tomatoes wanted to be in the pantry box. Cake mixes wanted to be in the baked goods box, and so on. The cans, boxes, and jars took charge.
We volunteers were nothing more than servants whose job was to unite like items in the different categories. When this happened, food items began to fly off the pallets and land in the proper banana box.
We became a cohesive working group under Troy’s guidance. At the end of the day, we had sorted and packed almost 4000 pounds of glorious food. This food was now stacked on pallets in a different part of the warehouse. It was ready to be distributed to agencies who in turn will distribute it to people who lack the resources to buy food at a grocery store.
Now, here’s where the universe came in.
Two days after we returned from this task, almost to the hour, I got a call from the Food Bank of Northeastern New York. Markertek had given us a grant. I need to order this food NOW. There’s a very clear deadline.
So, this morning I sat down and wrote up the order to place and then pick up on the 22nd. When I did the math, I discovered the following fact:
The amount of food we packed into banana boxes on that fateful Wednesday pretty much exactly matches the amount of food we will get with the Markertek Grant.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Do you work at a pantry? Do you shop at a pantry? Do you donate to a pantry? Part 5
UNREACHABLE
“Hi Chris! How’s it going today? Are you busy or what in here? This place is jammed! ”
“Busy as always Thurman. We’ve got melons and a lot of tomatoes today. We’re out of the special HPNAP produce.”
“Listen Chris, it doesn’t matter. Prasida and Francine and I always find something wonderful and magical here every time we come to the Food Bank.”
Prasida and Francine make it their life’s work to get the best possible produce from Latham to Boiceville every Monday morning. These 2 women know food. Each week is a food quest for them.
THIS IS EXACTLY THE SAME SITUATION FOR THOSE SEEKING FOOD FROM A FOOD PANTRY.
And, of course, fresh produce and bakery goods are only part of the picture…Much of what happens is unplanned, haphazard, erratic. No one really complains. After all, we’re getting food, aren’t we? And, none of us has the authority, resources, responsibility, or ideas to improve the system.
IT BOILS DOWN TO THIS: WE AT RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY:
GET WHAT WE GET
WHEN WE GET IT
HOW WE GET IT.
OUR CLIENTS GET WHAT THEY GET WHEN THEY CAN MAKE IT TO THE PANTRY.
WHEN THEY CAN NO LONGER MAKE IT TO THE PANTRY, WE GET IT DELIVERED TO THEM SOMEHOW.
LARGE DIFFERENCES EXIST IN CLIENT ACCESS TO PANTRIES AND SOUP KITCHENS. There are no soup kitchens in the Reservoir Food Pantry area. If a person out here needs to go to a soup kitchen, the best opportunity is to go to Woodstock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 4:30 pm. That’s when the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in the back building of Christ Lutheran Church is open. Chances are good that if you don’t live in Woodstock and don’t have the wherewithal to put together a meal at your home (wherever and whatever that is), you aren’t going to have the wherewithal to make it over to Woodstock either.
AVAILABILITY HAS A LOT TO DO WITH ACCESS. Our pantry distributes food 3 days weekly but it’s only open on Mondays in Boiceville. If, for example, you live in West Shokan and have no transportation on Mondays, you aren’t going to make it to our pantry. Unfortunately, this also holds true in urban settings as well.
KINGSTON HAS MANY PANTRIES AND SOUP KITCHENS. There again, you need to be able to get to them when they’re open. Some people simply can’t make it over.
Take, for example, Motel 19, a shelter located at the intersection of Routes 28, 209, and 87 on the edge of Kingston. Without a bicycle or car, a person is looking at a long hike.
Imagine being a young mother with an infant or child trying to get to a grocery store, doctor’s office, pantry or soup kitchen. Imagine walking down a highway with this infant or child in your arms as cars travel faster than 45 miles per hour.
What if there is rain, freezing rain, or a snow storm?
Shoppers in rural areas routinely face transportation difficulties. People travel significant distances. Some walk, bicycle, take the bus, or hitch rides from friends and neighbors.
THE RULE IS THIS: THOSE MOST IN NEED HAVE THE LEAST ACCESS TO TRANSPORTATION.
Reservoir Food Pantry has been designated a mobile food pantry. We deliver food to half of our clients. One stop is a low rent complex for seniors. Another is an intergenerational low rent complex. The remainder of the stops are at individual residences – apartments, homes, rooms, whatever.
As challenging as it is for shoppers to get to the pantry, it’s equally difficult for the pantry volunteers to get to the Food Bank. At Reservoir Food Pantry, we’re fortunate to have dedicated volunteers and a reliable vehicle sold to me by Sawyer Motors at an excellent price. Remove those 2 factors, and the result is a mess.
SOME FOOD PANTRIES HAVE LIMITED FINANCIAL DONORS AND VOLUNTEERS. Some have transportation issues. They may lack produce, baked goods, and other foods necessary for a balanced diet.
The structure of our Food Bank/Food Pantry system is unable to ensure those in the greatest need will have access to food.
The Food Banks of Northeastern New York and the Hudson Valley are focused on developing innovative ways to get the food to the people. A designated truck is driven on a regular route to grocery stores, farms, food manufacturers, and other locations to pick up food and take it to the Food Bank. It is then sorted and made available to pantries.
THE FARM STANDS AT PEOPLES PLACE AND COMMUNITY IN KINGSTON ARE PRODUCTS OF THIS EFFORT.
The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley conducts daily mass food distributions throughout the area where a food bank driver in a semi delivers 12 pallets of food to a central point predetermined by a schedule. The food is then distributed to pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, individual households. Communities receiving these food distributions regularly include communities such as Lake Katrine, Gardiner, Kingston.
We have much needed food going to hungry people. I only wish more of it were going to the more rural locations.
Now that I’m writing a wish list, I wish more pantries would open on evenings and weekends. This is difficult to do, I know. Reservoir Food Pantry is not yet open weekends.
I also wish pantries could give up some of the identification requirements.
JUST FEED THE PEOPLE, YOU KNOW?
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley has a critical need: Volunteers!
Recent cuts in SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp Program) are forcing more and more people to turn to food pantries and soup kitchens to help feed their families. To meet the increasing need, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley is finding new sources of donated food. As more food comes into the Food Bank, dedicated volunteers are working overtime to sort it for distribution to nearly 400 emergency feeding programs.
NOW, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE, THE FOOD BANK NEEDS OUR HELP. Both groups and individuals are urged to volunteer to help get this food to those in need. Right now, there are thousands of pounds of food in the warehouse waiting to be prepared for distribution.
YOU CAN VOLUNTEER AT A DAY, EVENING, OR WEEKEND SHIFTS. CALL TROY MARTIN AT 845-534-5344.
Or, email him at tmartin@foodbankofhudsonvalley.org.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
